Conclusion: Creative Resistance
The commodification of Aboriginal culture demonstrates that colonial oppression continues to exist today. A reflection of early colonial practices of constructing Native peoples as the savage 'others' while seizing their land, misrepresentations in common popular culture imagery continues to incorrectly and unfairly shape Native identity without their input. These misrepresentations often generalize diverse Native groups into one generic group, thus re-creating Goffman's notion of treating subjects in 'batch-like ways' in Total Institutions (Davies 1989). The dynamics of power between dominant groups and subordinate groups as described by Ian Lopez (2012) and Peggy McIntosh (1990) is evident as corporations and organizations, mainly controlled by rich and powerful White managers, use these misrepresentations, exploit Aboriginal culture, and marginalize an already vulnerable group for profit-seeking purposes. The consequential effect of commodifying Aboriginal culture and placing Native peoples in a non-existent, idealized past is the 'symbolic annihilation' of the culture and its people (Merskin 1998, p. 335). Oppression due to colonization of Aboriginal cultural and identity in popular media representations sanitizes and trivializes real and existing Aboriginal struggles.
As a way of re-claiming their identity through self-representation rather than allowing false stereotypes being perpetuated through popular representations of Indigenous peoples, Aboriginal artists are using several creative channels to “achieve the fullest possible expression of political and creative agency” (Amsterdam, 2013, p. 54). As Marcuse (1968) writes, “the process of knowledge is never terminated”, and with every act of cognition the individual re-creates his or her conception of the world (p. 111). By challenging racist stereotypes present in popular culture, especially those created unsatisfactorily by non-Natives, contemporary Aboriginal artists offer new imaginings for spectators to identify First Nations Peoples and cultures based on the artists’ own terms (Merskin, 1998, p. 342; Gittings, 1998).
For instance, MC Red Cloud from the electronic music group ‘A Tribe Called Red’ explains using their own imagery in their musical and performance style: “We’re decolonizing these images…and we’re taking that power back ourselves” (as quoted in Amsterdam, 2013, p. 59). Instead of avoiding Aboriginal pasts and histories, artists choose to represent their ancestors in the present, challenging the colonial oppression faced by them in the past and now in the present through cultural appropriation (Amsterdam, 2013, p. 59).
In addition to musical expression, artists are now creating Native American and Aboriginal heroes in comic books to resist and reject commonly used tropes in fictional ‘Indian’ characters. Tribal Force, originally published in 1996 and rebooted in 2011, features Native American characters who face real and current struggles of American Indians, including sexual abuse, alcoholism, and racism (King 2009, p. 220). Another fictional character, inspired by Shannen Koostachin, a young Cree activist from Attawapiskat who died in a car crash in 2010, will be featured in DC Comic’s upcoming Justice League Canada, scheduled to be published in 2014 ("New DC Comics Superhero", 30 October 2013). These characters and storylines not only provide entertainment, but also offer Native American youth positive role models while developing their own sense of self and identity (King 2009, p. 221).
These original self-representations of First Nations people challenge dominant ideologies perpetuated by European colonialist representations (Castro-Gomez 1998, p. 28). These Aboriginal artists choose not to accept master narratives and ‘common sense’ notions of racialized groups, which are visible through generic representations of the vastly different First Nations tribes in popular culture (Lopez 2012, p. 193; Davies 1989, p. 92). Instead, these Aboriginal artists choose to reclaim their authority and power by determining their own identity, thus creating their own narratives in the discourse that has been largely dominated by European settlers in the past (Castro-Gomez 1998, p. 29). Instead of ignoring the past, they are embracing and reclaiming, repurposing, and reusing it – thereby re-placing Aboriginal peoples in the present, as relevant powers in our social and political world (Amsterdam 2013, p. 54).
The following excerpts detail A Tribe Called Red's and Shannen's groundbreaking influence on advancing representations of Aboriginals in popular culture.
The following excerpts detail A Tribe Called Red's and Shannen's groundbreaking influence on advancing representations of Aboriginals in popular culture.
Now that you guys are touring the world, playing heavily attended shows in places like Detroit, and across Europe, you've started to recognize attendees dressing in first nations headdresses, yes?
Yeah. It was a trend that started before we were touring or making albums. But now that we're touring more and playing more festivals, we're starting to see them more, unfortunately.
Are they the kind of headdresses one might find for a child's costume; made of plastic feathers, or are they more elaborate, or authentic?
Yeah. The majority of them are costume variety but some are more elaborate, very non-specific to any Nation though.
So what's the part about them that you and your counterparts are finding the most offensive? Is it the lack of specific nation represented, or is it that it's by non-First Nations wearing them, or something else?
Both and more. It's creating a false idea of what it means to be Indigenous today. It's "Pan-Indianism". It's robbing the First Nations of their nationhoods and nationality. It's making us all "Indian" instead of recognizing me as an Anishnabe or Ojibway. I'm NOT an "Indian". I'm of the Anishnabe Nation. Also, it gives the impression that Natives are something from the past. Not here today. If you were to think of an "Indian" you certainly aren't going to think of me, tattooed in a hoodie with a Sens cap on. We, as First Nation people, have never had control of our image in colonial media since its birth.
Retrieved from: The Huffington Post.
Yeah. It was a trend that started before we were touring or making albums. But now that we're touring more and playing more festivals, we're starting to see them more, unfortunately.
Are they the kind of headdresses one might find for a child's costume; made of plastic feathers, or are they more elaborate, or authentic?
Yeah. The majority of them are costume variety but some are more elaborate, very non-specific to any Nation though.
So what's the part about them that you and your counterparts are finding the most offensive? Is it the lack of specific nation represented, or is it that it's by non-First Nations wearing them, or something else?
Both and more. It's creating a false idea of what it means to be Indigenous today. It's "Pan-Indianism". It's robbing the First Nations of their nationhoods and nationality. It's making us all "Indian" instead of recognizing me as an Anishnabe or Ojibway. I'm NOT an "Indian". I'm of the Anishnabe Nation. Also, it gives the impression that Natives are something from the past. Not here today. If you were to think of an "Indian" you certainly aren't going to think of me, tattooed in a hoodie with a Sens cap on. We, as First Nation people, have never had control of our image in colonial media since its birth.
Retrieved from: The Huffington Post.
New DC Comics superhero inspired by young Cree activist
A new comic superhero for D-C Comics will take the form of a teenage girl from James Bay. Toronto cartoonist Jeff Lemire says Shannen Koostachin — a young Cree activist from Attawapiskat — helped inspire him. Lemire said the 15-year-old, who led fellow students to Parliament Hill to lobby for a proper school, isn't far from his thoughts in drawing up the new superhero. “I think if I can capture some of that heart and some of that essence in this character, perhaps she'll almost be a guiding spirit in the creation of this character,” he said.
He came up with the idea of a Cree superhero because he was fascinated with the culture he saw while visiting Northern Ontario as a child, he said. Lemire will write the stories and work with an artist on the depiction of the unnamed hero.
The ‘shadow of Shannen’
In two weeks, Lemire said he'll visit schools in Moosonee and Moose Factory to talk to students. He's organizing a contest in which students will suggest new super powers for the character. “There would be the cultural strengths,” he said of the character. “The family ties, the knowledge of the land, the rich, rich symbolism of the Cree on James Bay.” The MP for the area, Charlie Angus, said there's a huge need for role models and heros who First Nations can look up to. Koostachin is a real-life role model who can speak to them, he said. “This shadow of Shannen, looking down on these youth today, is certainly something that would work within the comic book format,” he said.
Shannen Koostachin was killed in a car crash, in 2010, just before her sixteenth birthday.
A new school bearing her name is scheduled to open in Attawapiskat next September.
Lemire said the comics should come out sometime next spring.
Retrieved from CBC News.
A new comic superhero for D-C Comics will take the form of a teenage girl from James Bay. Toronto cartoonist Jeff Lemire says Shannen Koostachin — a young Cree activist from Attawapiskat — helped inspire him. Lemire said the 15-year-old, who led fellow students to Parliament Hill to lobby for a proper school, isn't far from his thoughts in drawing up the new superhero. “I think if I can capture some of that heart and some of that essence in this character, perhaps she'll almost be a guiding spirit in the creation of this character,” he said.
He came up with the idea of a Cree superhero because he was fascinated with the culture he saw while visiting Northern Ontario as a child, he said. Lemire will write the stories and work with an artist on the depiction of the unnamed hero.
The ‘shadow of Shannen’
In two weeks, Lemire said he'll visit schools in Moosonee and Moose Factory to talk to students. He's organizing a contest in which students will suggest new super powers for the character. “There would be the cultural strengths,” he said of the character. “The family ties, the knowledge of the land, the rich, rich symbolism of the Cree on James Bay.” The MP for the area, Charlie Angus, said there's a huge need for role models and heros who First Nations can look up to. Koostachin is a real-life role model who can speak to them, he said. “This shadow of Shannen, looking down on these youth today, is certainly something that would work within the comic book format,” he said.
Shannen Koostachin was killed in a car crash, in 2010, just before her sixteenth birthday.
A new school bearing her name is scheduled to open in Attawapiskat next September.
Lemire said the comics should come out sometime next spring.
Retrieved from CBC News.